I arrived in Montreal and checked at the St. Paul Hotel, which was a 4 star boutique hotel. Before I arrived I received exceptional service from the manager Eric Pouliot. He volunteered to help pick up my Russell Peter’s tickets before I arrived. The hotel was a Chic boutique hotel, but Eric’s service left a stronger impression on me than the hotel to be honest.

I went over to the Just for Laugh’s festival. I purchased a group of tickets and had to sell a pair with 2 hours to go. I decided to go straight to the source of the highest demand, which was the box office and sold them.

Just for Laughs festival 2011

I decided to celebrate this small victory with a drink at Cavalli’s as it was a Thursday and the Montreal’s insider blog recommended it. I found the restaurant initially pretentious, but once I sat at the bar it was just a temporary passing. Cavalli’s wasn’t as busy as I thought. There were some people enjoying dinner, but the majority of the crowd were loitering around the bar. My chat with the bartender revealed that there was a music festival called Osheaga that featured Eminem and Lupe Fiasco. This was like a dream match up for me.

The Russell Peter’s show was very good. He introduced some new comedians and he held his own. Poking fun of the crowd and cultural stereotypes. He is entertaining, confident, and amazing what he can get away with saying and spark and still spark a positive reaction from the crowd. What a talent.

Friday

The next day I went to the Montreal Museum for the much anticipated Jean Paul Gaultier. The exhibit was very interesting with striking pictures and fashionable dressed mannequins with animated faces. I felt that my fashion education increased at the end of the visit and vowed to get a sweater with horizontal stripes soon. Photos of the pictures and video footage was not permitted, but I’ve decided to take a risk for you to share this talent with the world. So please enjoy this while you can. More pictures on facebook. I also had the pleasure of meeting a beautiful women and her friend Zina. She provided an exclusive insider interview on Montreal’s hot spots and restaurants in the first release from ChicVoyage productions

After I went to visit Au Pied de Cochon, A French restaurant that had the highest reviews on Yelp so I had high expectations. I was helped by a cheerful naturally beautiful brown haired women named Sarah Jane. She was a good sport and helped introduced the dishes I had in the Montreal video. The food was amazing and felt my still developing palette had been treated to some of the best food that Montreal had to offer. See her in our video.

To top off the day I decided to check out the Eminem. I had to cab to a park island I think it was called La Ronde that resembled Vancouver’s Stanley Park. I somehow managed to get the SLR in without any problems, which you can’t usually do at music concerts. I then tried to make my way to the front, but the crowd was dense, young, and the price for claustrophobia and getting crushed was not worth it. I decided to take the highest point and struck it lucky at the Bacardi bar where I got amazing views of the entire concert and the immense 32,000 plus crowd with a landscape of downtown Montreal.

A scene from Eminem Osheaga Festival Summer Montreal 2011

Saturday

I decided to soak in some culture and exercise at Montreal Cycle tours, the highest rated activity on Montreal according to Tripadvisor. I ended up being the only single in a group of thirty something aged couples from the US. The ride was good some of the highlights of our ride were Mcgill, Montreal Public market, La Canal Lachine waterfront, and the Latin Quarter. Our tour guide was knowledge and an interesting character. The lunch served pizza with a beer. The ride went a hour or two longer than we wanted, but overall I felt it was good value. I highly recommend the tour for exercise, to meet people, cultural education, and to see a lot of Montreal which you are at it. Thanks to Shea, the owner for his generosity. I’m sorry my pictures and videos from the cycle tour must have been damaged on my SD card.

I took the train over to watch Lupe Fiasco. This concert was in the hot summer day with a fraction of the energy and the crowds of the previous night. I expected more from the witty introspective lyrics of Lupe Fiasco. The beginning of his performance began with putting down the United States, and he went through some new material and some of his original hits.

It was the night of the fireworks and I decided to try watch it from a restaurant with a cool rooftop terrace called Suite 701. My view wasn’t the best because some buildings were blocking it, but it sure beats fighting crowds at the park to watch it.

Suite 701View from Suite 701 Montreal Summer 2011 with the Fireworks

I went for a walk down St. Laurent and stopped at a spots bar to watch an MMA fight with Dan Henderson and Fedor. I had a great time here. They played great music, it was a great fight, and I met a friendly group of guys from New Jersey that were there for a stag. I was recommended by the sports bar owner to go to Stogies to smoke a cigar at Crescent St. Stogies was a great time. I was greeted by the owner and explained that I had come from the sports bar. He introduced me to the bar where there was comfortable seating, a well stocked great looking bar, and a energetic bar tender. They had outdoor patio seating that overlooked the buzzing crescent st , but I remained inside and drank real stiff scotch and smoke my Cohíba Siglo. This was the life. I stopped by a restaurant across the street for a delicious chicken schwarma before heading back to the hotel. By this time it was 3am in the morning and I had to wake at 5am to catch my 7am flight back to Vancouver. Great experience. It was too short, but I plan to have a Chic tour in Montreal in the future. Catch the highlights in our video.